Clarissa

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Note: For other articles related to Clarissa,
see
Clarissa (disambiguation)

Clarissa, or, the History of a Young Lady is
the title of an
epistolary novel published by
Samuel Richardson in
1748. Another form of the title is Clarissa Harlowe; or
the History of a Young Lady.

Clarissa is an exceptionally long novel; excepting
novel sequences, it may well be the longest novel in the
English language. The full volume of its third edition, the
edition most extensively revised by Richardson, spans over one
million words. The first edition alone contains nearly 969,000
words.

Plot summary

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

Clarissa Harlowe, the
tragic heroine of Clarissa, is a beautiful and
virtuous young lady whose family has become very wealthy only in
recent years and is now eager to become part of the
aristocracy by acquiring estates and titles through
advantageous pairings. Clarissa's relatives attempt to force her
to marry a rich but heartless man against her will and, more
importantly, against her own sense of virtue. Desperate to
remain free, she is tricked by a young gentleman of her
acquaintance, Lovelace, into escaping with him. However, she
refuses to marry him, longing — unusually for a girl in her time
— to live by herself in peace. Lovelace, in the meantime, has
been trying to arrange a fake marriage all along, and considers
it a sport to add Clarissa to his long list of conquests.
However, as he is more and more impressed by Clarissa, he finds
it difficult to keep convincing himself that truly virtuous
women do not exist. The continuous pressure he finds himself
under, combined with his growing passion for Clarissa, forces
him to extremes and eventually he rapes her. Clarissa manages to
escape from him, but remains dangerously ill. When she dies,
however, it is in the full consciousness of her own virtue, and
trusting in a better
life after death. Lovelace, tormented by what he has done
but still unable to change, dies in a
duel
with Clarissa's cousin. Clarissa's relatives finally realise the
misery they have caused, but discover that they are too late and
Clarissa has already died.

Television adaptions

The
BBC adapted the novel as a television series in 1991,
starring
Sean Bean.